This invention relates to a shield which surrounds drainage openings in a conduit and more particularly to a shield for the orifices in a drainage conduit to prevent debris and the like from entering the orifices when the conduit is buried in a wastewater treatment drain field.
In the treatment of wastewater and particularly wastewater that has been treated in a septic tank, or the like, the effluent from the septic tank is transferred into a drain field wherein the effluent is absorbed in the soil. In the preparation of these drain fields to receive wastewater effluent, trenches are generally dug in a preselected arrangement and pipes or conduits with drainage openings or orifices therein are laid into the trenches. Generally these pipes are covered with pebbles or crushed rock which assists in the percolation of the effluent into the soil. However, with this type of arrangement it is very difficult to obtain uniform distribution of the effluent in the drain field as the openings within the pipes can be clogged with dust or fines from the crushed rock or gravel. There have been suggestions, however, of placing shields to prevent the clogging of these orifices or openings, but such shields in many instances have proved to be cumbersome or inefficient in assembling. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,167,914 teaches an orifice protector which is of C-shaped cross-section for circumscribing the drainage conduit and cover the orifices in the conduit. Opposed ends of the elongated C-shaped orifice protector are provided with downwardly and inwardly indented portions which define stand-off portions for maintaining the central top portion of the conduit in a spaced relationship with the conduit. One problem in the manufacture of this orifice protector, after the initial step of injection molding of the body of the orifice protector, the orifice protector is subjected to a second manufacturing step of deforming or indenting the ends of the wall of the orifice protector downwardly and inwardly to make the stand-off portions to provide a flow through channel between the inner surface of the orifice protector and the outer surface of the drainage conduit.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an orifice shield for protecting the orifices in a drainage conduit.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an orifice shield for the drainage openings in a drainage conduit wherein the inner surface of the orifice shield is spaced from the outer surface of the drainage conduit thereby providing for a channel for the drainage of effluent from the drainage conduit.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an orifice shield for a drainage conduit which is manufactured in a one-step injection molded process.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an orifice shield for a drainage conduit which is relatively inexpensive and easy to install onto a drainage conduit.
More particularly, the present invention provides an orifice shield for wastewater drainage conduit which is an longitudinally extending cylindrically-shaped unitary body having a first open end and an opposed second open end. The shield body includes a top wall section and rounded sidewalls extending from the top wall with at least one flow-through slot in the top wall. The rounded sidewalls end in opposed spaced terminating edges extending along the length of the body for receiving and griping a conduit. At least one longitudinally extending spacer is provided along an interior surface of the body to space the top wall of the unitary body from the drainage conduit.